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FBI Analyzes DNA From Glove Found 2 Miles From Guthrie's Home; Iran's FM Heads To Geneva For 2nd Round Of U.S. Nuclear Talks; Parties Search For Way To End Partial Us Government Shutdown; No Medal For Mikaela Shiffrin In Women's Giant Slalom; Trial Begins Today for Father of Accused School Shooter; Canada's Gun Buyback Program Faces Major Delays, Pushback; How Video and Photos Aid Investigators in High-Profile Cases; Jeffries: Dems Going to "Finish" the Redistricting War; DOJ Letter Lists Reasons Why Epstein Files Have Been Heavily Redacted; Back-to-Back Pacific Storms Set to Hit Western States. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired February 16, 2026 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:30]

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta. And it is so good to have you with me. Coming up on the show, an American news host making another emotional plea to her mother's captives at the search for Nancy Guthrie enters its third week.

Washington set for a big week of diplomatic talks with both Iran and Russia as Donald Trump tries to end one war and stop another war from starting. And America's most decorated city skier comes up short on the slopes. We'll have your wrap of Day 9 at the Winter Games.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. Let's begin in Arizona, where the desperate search for missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie now stretches into a third week. On Sunday, Nancy's daughter, that's Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, posted yet another plea for her mother's safe return. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, "TODAY" SHOW HOST: We still have hope and we still believe and I wanted to say to whoever has her or knows where she is that it's never too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: This comes as authorities are still trying to identify the person seen approaching Nancy Guthrie's home on February 1st, just hours before she was reported missing. So far, no suspects have been named in Guthrie's disappearance. The FBI says they are now awaiting final DNA test results from a glove recovered about two miles away from Guthrie's home. CNN's Ivan Rodriguez has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The FBI says a glove found near Nancy Guthrie's property matches that of a man approaching Nancy Guthrie's front door when he was caught on that doorbell footage.

The FBI says that DNA from that recovered glove is currently being analyzed and could take anywhere between 24 to 48 hours. The FBI has described this man as anywhere between 5 foot 9 to 5 foot 10 inches tall with an average build.

Now, beyond the DNA testing, if the recovered glove is found to belong to that man approaching Nancy's front door, it could become an important clue for investigators to help track the movements of this person after they allegedly abducted Nancy Guthrie.

The sheriff's department is also asking neighbors who live within a two mile radius of Nancy's home to check their surveillance cameras for any sort of footage between January 1 and February 2, and they can submit that footage through their online evidence portal.

Now, a big obstacle for investigators has been getting that clear image and videos from other neighbors in the area because homes are pushed back from the road and there's a lot of trees obstructing the view here of the road.

Throughout the day, we've also seen plenty of people come by and leave behind yellow flowers of hope hoping for Nancy Guthrie's safe return. In Catalina Foothills, Arizona, I'm Ivan Rodriguez.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Let's bring in law enforcement and litigation expert Sunny Slaughter for more on this. Thank you for being up late for me again, Sunny. I appreciate it. We are now in the third week of Nancy Guthrie being missing, investigators say they're still looking at a glove that they found near her home. How significant is that sort of development at this stage? And tell me what happens next.

SUNNY SLAUGHTER, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND LITIGATION EXPERT: Good morning, Ben. Thank you for having me. Once again, it's really critical. This information is new information and the DNA will be critical. And just like others have said, even if the person wearing the gloves, the suspect is not in the CODIS system, then so many people have participated in 23andMe and all of the other genealogy sites, they can potentially still obtain this individual's DNA by a distant relative.

What's going to happen next is they're going to get that information back. They're going to look to see if the person is in the system, begin to make those ties in with who they can find potentially, and then begin another investigation.

Well, not separately, but move forward the investigation with what they have in trying to determine who this person is and how they can find them and get information about where Nancy Guthrie is.

[01:05:03]

This has been going on for a long time, but I want people to have patience because this is not the end of the road. This is another stepping stone.

HUNTE: Savannah Guthrie made a very direct, emotional plea last night to whoever has her mother saying, it's never too late to do the right thing. In cases like this, are those kinds of messages usually coordinated with law enforcement and maybe even encouraged and scripted by law enforcement?

SLAUGHTER: Well, you know, Nancy Guthrie's mother is, I'm sorry, Savannah Guthrie. She knows what to do. She has covered these type of cases. And Savannah may be talking to law enforcement, but I don't think this was scripted.

This was heartfelt, this was emotional. And I don't think she needed anyone to tell her what to say because she's been here as a professional, and now this is so personal. However, I do think that law enforcement is now looking at everything, even those comments that are coming through.

And this is really good for her to say things out loud in a way that humanizes her mother, humanizes the situation, and speaks directly to the suspects. And I say suspects with an S that potentially have had her mother or has her mother right now.

HUNTE: This has been such an intense few days. We've seen situations where someone's detained, Their full name becomes public, and then they're released without charges. From your perspective, what are the consequences of that, though, both of the individuals involved and for the public trust in law enforcement?

SLAUGHTER: Because people don't understand process and because we've never seen a case, the public has never seen a case play out like this so loud. And the individuals being detained, those that are in the neighborhoods where homes are being searched, it does make it feel very unusual. But this actually happens all the time. And people who are detained, then they get a negative spotlight on them.

Unfortunately, this is what investigations look like. And the community and those that don't know what they are doing should not be sharing people's information out loud. Don't share their location, don't share their name, allow law enforcement to do what they do. Because when you put this type of spotlight on somebody, it can hurt and impugn their credibility. It can harm their reputation.

And then when they're released, people still think that they have been involved, and that is not the case. This is just the way investigations and operations work. But they usually work behind the scenes. But there's a lot of spotlight on these particular individuals and this case.

HUNTE: We've got one more minute. So I'm just going to ask you, given your experience with high profile cases like this. And based on what you know right now, what are you realistically expecting to see in the next few days?

SLAUGHTER: I'm expecting to see that they have narrowed down the surge to at least several individuals, family members, and that they're going to be conducting more detainees, more individuals or even changing locations and hopefully obtaining information about where they can find Nancy Guthrie.

HUNTE: OK, well, let's see what happens next. Like I said at the top, I appreciate you staying up late for me is 1:07 a.m. we're still going Sunny Slaughter. Thank you so much for now. I appreciate it.

SLAUGHTER: Thank you, Ben. See you again.

HUNTE: Thank you. Onwards, the Trump administration is conducting a flurry of diplomatic meetings this week. On Tuesday, U.S. and Iranian officials are set to hold a new round of high stakes nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sources say it's U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to attend. This all comes as the Trump administration ramps up its military pressure on Tehran, sending a second U.S. aircraft carrier group to the Middle East that very same day.

And also in Geneva, the U.S. will also begin a third round of talks of Russian and Ukrainian officials. The Trump administration tries to negotiate an end to Russia's nearly four year long war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the U.S. President will host the first meeting of the Board of Peace on Thursday to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza. It's going to take place at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which President Trump recently renamed after himself.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the Board of Peace will announce a $5 billion pledge for humanitarian aid and reconstruction in Gaza. And he says the group has committed thousands of personnel for an international stabilization force in the enclave.

Meanwhile, Gaza's Civil Defense says 11 people were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli strikes on Sunday. According to Hamas run television, a senior militant with the Islamic Jihad group was also killed.

[01:10:03]

The Israeli military has not confirmed the strike.

Satellite images show the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of Oman on Sunday. This comes as U.S. and Iranian officials are set to hold a new round of high stakes nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday. CNN's Julia Benbrook has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump has made it clear that he prefers diplomacy when dealing with Iran and that they are focused in on negotiations right now. These comments come as we do expect the next round of talks between the United States and Iran to take place in a matter of days.

According to sources who spoke with CNN, those talks will take place on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, and both U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff as well as Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner will be in attendance.

Now, Rubio did say that those two are going to be having important meetings soon and essentially we'll see what happens. As he said, the goal here is to come to a successful deal. He also highlighted the complexity of the situation. Take a listen.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're dealing with people who make political decision -- geopolitical decisions on the basis of pure theology and it's a complicated thing. I mean, no one's ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we're going to try.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling. I think they're traveling right now to have important meetings and we'll see how that turns out. And we'll always comply with the applicable laws of the United States in terms of involving Congress, any decisions. But right now we're not talking about any of that.

BENBROOK: The United States recently dispatched a second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East which Trump says is in place if they are not able to reach a diplomatic solution. He did say those ships would depart if a solution is reached. Traveling with the president in Florida, Julia Benbrook, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Norban in the coming hours. Rubio arrived in Budapest after a visit to Slovakia and on the back of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he told European leaders that the U.S. and Europe, quote, belong together.

On Sunday, Rubio said the White House wants Europe to reduce its dependence on the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: We don't want Europe to be dependent on we're not asking Europe to be a vassal of the United States. We want to be your partner. We want to work with Europe. We want to work with our allies. We want to work in cooperation with you. And our point has been and continues to be, the stronger you are both on an individual basis in terms of countries and collectively as an alliance, the stronger the members of NATO are, the stronger NATO is.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNTE: Let's talk about all of this with Steven Erlanger. He's the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for the New York Times, and joining me from Berlin. Thank you so much for being with me, Steven. How are you doing?

STEVEN ERLANGER, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT IN EUROPE, NEW YORK TIMES: I'm doing all right, a little tired. How are you?

HUNTE: I definitely feel that. I definitely feel that we're going to keep on going, Steven. We saw Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Munich trying to reassure European allies that the United States and Europe belong together after so much anxiety about Washington's direction. But did his message actually land, or is there still deep distrust in European capitals?

ERLANGER: Well, there's a lot of mistrust. I mean, not so much about Rubio, who generally Europeans regard as a more sensible person trying to keep the train on the tracks. But his speech had a big ideological counterpart. I mean, it was very similar to the J.D. Vance message last year, but much softer in the sense that the U.S. is a child of Western European Judeo Christian civilization and that is being diminished by immigration and by Islam. And this strikes many Europeans as slightly racist, but also harking back to a fantasy history.

Now, the promise of support for Europe while Europe learns to create conventional defense on its own, that was very much welcomed. But there is a very strong feeling in Europe that the Americans are becoming more ideological. They're engaging in European domestic politics, and this is something allies do not do.

HUNTE: Almost immediately after Rubio spoke, Chinese leaders declared that China and Europe are partners, not rivals, and appear to be quietly wooing Europe. But how seriously are European leaders entertaining that pitch and what does it mean for US Influence? Though?

ERLANGER: I don't think they're taking the wooing very seriously. I mean, they certainly regard China as a rising power, very strong economic power, a place for European exports, but they see the China challenge very strongly.

[01:15:09]

And they also very much recognize that China is an integral part of Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine. China has been supplying Russia with all kinds of material being used in the war. It defends Russia's invasion. And I think this is a big problem for Europeans, too.

So I think the Chinese are in this aggressive mode. They spend a lot of time offending Japan. Also at this conference, China's saying, OK, fine, we can be an alternative. But I'm not sure this is the kind of alternative most Europeans want.

HUNTE: Rubio's other stops are raising eyebrows as well. But why is that? What message does a quick visit to Slovakia and Hungary actually send to the rest of Europe?

ERLANGER: Well, one wonders sometimes who Rubio's audience really is, whether it's just the guy in the White House. I mean, clearly he and Vance are in some sort of competition to inherit MAGA and to go immediately from the Munich Security Conference and talk about wonderful alliances with Europe, and then go to the two countries that are the most Eurosceptic, that are the most against Ukraine's defense, who are refusing to help pay for it, who are much closer to Russia, who still get a lot of energy from Russia.

I think, you know, this is the message that people don't like. This is exactly the ideological interference with Europe people don't like. People feel that Vladimir Putin cannot divide Europe from itself, but Donald Trump can.

HUNTE: On Ukraine, European governments are watching closely for any sign that Washington might push for a negotiated settlement, potentially on terms that Kyiv doesn't fully control and might not even want. Though. How much leverage does Europe really have in shaping the outcomes of any talks here?

ERLANGER: Well, right now, not as much as it would like. I mean, people keep talking about a seat at the table, but really they're negotiating with the Americans on a proposal that has yet to be put, really, before the Russians.

I know Witkoff is talking to some of the Russians, but the Russian public position has been unchanging and quite demanding. And the American pressure is really being put on Ukraine. Europe is trying, you know, Europe ought to have influence in the sense that in the last year, figures show the Americans provided no money to Ukraine at all, while Europe has provided almost everything. So the Europeans feel they are committed to Ukraine's defense against Russia.

It's a very important strategic interest for Europe, and they are very troubled by the fact that the United States, the Trump administration, certainly does not regard the war in Ukraine as a strategic interest of the United States and that Donald Trump seems to favor the Russian narrative.

So this is part of the real sense of unease that all Europeans pretty much feel, despite the emollient words of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

HUNTE: Oh, yes. Well, thank you so much for that update. We appreciate it. Steven Erlanger, thank you.

ERLANGER: Thank you.

HUNTE: High tensions in Washington this week as lawmakers clash over funding proposals for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The department shut down over the weekend after Congress failed to agree on a deal and very little movement could come this week since both chambers are in recess.

Among the Democrats demands for agreeing to funding are mandatory body cameras for immigration agents. They also want to prevent agents from wearing masks and obscuring their identities. Democrats also want to require immigration agents to use judicial warrants instead of the easier to obtain administrative warrants they have been using and to put an end to roving agent patrols.

Despite the partial shutdown, many DHS employees will still be required to work, though, however, they're not going to be paid. That includes agencies like FEMA, the Coast Guard, TSA, and even the Secret Service.

All right, one of Team USA's most decorated skiers fails to meddle in women's giant slalom. Still to come, CNN's Coy Wire wraps up the day's medals at the Winter Olympics. Stay with us. See you in a moment.

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[01:23:49]

HUNTE: Welcome back. One of the world's most decorated skiers, Mikaela Shiffrin, missed another opportunity to meddle at this year's Winter Olympics. Shiffrin was competing in the women's giant slalom on Sunday, but she will have another show shot at the slalom later in the games. CNN's Coy Wire has more on the Olympics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COY WIRE, CNN WOLRD SPORT: Another incredible day here in the beautiful slopes of Cortina, where Italy's Federica Brignone continued to put up one of the greatest comeback stories in Italian sports history.

Just about 10 months after an horrific crash that left her with multiple displaced fractures in her leg. She's on the prowl at these games, and I say she's on the prowl because there's a bunch of fans wearing tiger print costumes and shirts in Cortina is because there's an army of them who are embracing the growling tiger painted on the top of Brignone's helmet.

She was like their catnip today, sending them into a frenzy, putting up two stellar giant slalom runs. She finished with a gold. Add that to the gold she took earlier in the Super G at 35 years old. It's incredible. Here is what she had to say after the latest big win.

[01:25:00]

FEDERICA BRIGNONE, TEAM ITALY WOMEN'S SKIER: The injury that I have, I think it's not healing. It's impossible to make it like it was before. For sure. I ruined completely my leg and my knee and I said, OK, no, I'm coming back. I always was more positive than it was and for two months I couldn't even almost bend, but almost zero my leg. It was crazy. I would exchange my two medals to come back and not have this injury. This I'm sure.

WIRE: Now there were high hopes for Team USA superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, the winniest alpine skier of all time. She finished 11th. She posted on her Instagram just hours before the event an old article that detailed the struggles she had mentally during previous competitions, maybe hinting that she was still having some of the same feelings. And now she finished 11th. But that was less than one second away from gold.

To put in perspective just how close these races are, she still has a chance to medal at these games. She will be competing in the slalom in the days to come. That is her best event.

One more thing before I go. 29 year old Norwegian Johannes Hosflot Klaebo became the most successful gold medal winning Winter Olympian of all time after picking up his fourth gold medal at these Games.

Klaebo added his latest gold in the men's cross country four by seven and a half kilometer relay and a dominant performance to secure his ninth Olympic gold of his storied career. It's been an incredible game so far for Norway. The nation, with a population of just over five and a half million people continues to dominate the ice and snow sitting at the top of the medal table. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: A massive avalanche struck in the Italian Alps, killing two people and leaving one in critical condition. It happened on Sunday morning near Cormier in northern Italy. Officials say all three victims were French nationals. Rescue teams included a helicopter, medics and search dogs. They work to help anyone else who might be trapped under the show the snow even.

Still ahead, I'll be speaking with an expert on Canada's controversial firearms buyback program on the heels of one of the worst mass shootings in the country's history. Stay with us.

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[01:30:33]

HUNTE: Welcome back.

Opening statements begin today in the case of Colin Gray. He's the Georgia father charged in a 2024 school shooting the authorities say was committed by his son. Police say Colt Gray, then 14-year-old, opened fire at Apalachee High School with an AR-15 style rifle. The now 16-year-old is facing 55 felony counts.

Two students and two teachers were killed. Nine other people were hurt. More than a year before the shooting, police questioned the teen's parents about online threats he allegedly made about carrying out the school shooting. Despite that, Gray still gave his son a gun for Christmas. Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to the nearly 30 charges filed against him in this case.

Canadian authorities are getting a better picture of the suspected shooter behind one of that country's worst mass shootings. Investigators say the suspect was not targeting anyone specific at the British Columbia school where the shooting took place. According to Canada's national police, quote, "this suspect was, for a lack of a better term, hunting."

The deadly mass shooting comes as Canadian authorities face major obstacles rolling out a nationwide firearms buyback program. Polling shows gun control has very strong support in Canada, but the buyback program still faces pushback from the local officials and gun owners.

We're joined now by Wendy Cukier. She's the president of the Coalition for Gun Control. She's also coauthor of the book "The Global Gun Epidemic", as well as a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Thank you so much for being with me. How are you doing?

WENDY CUKIER, PRESIDENT, COALITION FOR GUN CONTROL: Oh, not bad.

HUNTE: Good, good. Let's break down what's actually involved in this gun buyback program in Canada. And also, why has it become so controversial?

CUKIER: Sure. So after the Portapique shooting in 2020, which is the worst mass shooting we've had in Canadian history, 27 people were killed, the government announced that it was going to ban semi- automatic military style firearms and buy them back.

And in Canada, we have tended to ban guns, but let people keep them. And I think partly as a result of what had happened in, you know, Australia and New Zealand and so on, the government was committed to not just prohibiting these firearms, but actually getting them out of circulation.

So a list of 2,500 makes and models was issued and this -- to put it in perspective, in Canada, there's probably 9 million firearms, maybe a million of them are handguns. And in terms of this particular class of firearms we're probably talking about a couple of hundred thousand. It isn't like these are guns that everybody has. These are guns that are very specifically-regulated to allow people only to have them as part of collections or for target shooting under certain circumstances.

So we know pretty much who has these guns. They are already strictly regulated. And the government decided to prohibit them and then buy them back.

It's taken a while, partly because there was controversy around what guns should be on the list. There were some people who wanted the list to be more expansive. There are some people, obviously, who wanted the list to be narrower.

Our position is that hunting is a well-established tradition in Canada. Farmers, we have a lot of rural communities, farmers need their rifles and shotguns. And so this is very much targeted at firearms, which are not reasonably used for hunting.

So it's quite a strict definition. And it's guns that include large capacity magazines, the AR-15, the Ruger mini 14 and the like.

HUNTE: Some critics have said that the federal buyback wouldn't have prevented this latest tragedy though, because the weapons reportedly used were different.

[01:34:47]

HUNTE: How do you respond to people who say that this policy is ineffective or just wrong?

CUKIER: Well, I mean, it's -- no law will prevent all tragedies. The fact of the matter is that in this particular instance, it appears that the firearms that we're used were regular hunting rifles. And it's said there was also a handgun.

It looks like there were mental health issues. There are a lot of issues. But no law will prevent all mass shootings. We know that very clearly. One of the worst mass shootings in the world occurred in Dunblane, Scotland, where U.K. has the strictest gun laws imaginable.

But if you compare with respect the experiences of the United States with mass shootings, which occur almost on a weekly basis, and I think in the last year alone, 700 people or so were killed in various shootings that involve more than four people.

We've had 5 or 6 in the last five years, and remember that in this particular instance, the incident there were six people killed in the school.

If you contrast that to the mass shootings we've seen with military- style assault firearms typically it's dozens.

So to me it's like saying you have screening processes for skin cancer, breast cancer. And they didn't prevent this particular incident.

It's all about reducing risk. And we see very clearly that countries with stronger gun laws have fewer tragedies like this. Countries with stricter gun control have fewer firearm deaths and injuries.

(CROSSTALKING)

HUNTE: Well, let's talk about that because Canada already has far stronger gun laws than the United States and mass shootings are rare. Where does Canada stand now in terms of gun violence compared to other countries?

CUKIER: So we're fourth. Thank you for that question. We're fourth among OECD countries. So to put it in context if you look at the rate per 100,000, we have about a 10th of the rate that you have in the United States.

So last year you had 20,000 or so gun murders, we had 275. But if you compare us to the U.K. for example, we have ten times the rate of gun murders in the United Kingdom. Our rate is higher than Australia. Our rate is higher than most European countries.

So you know, it depends on what you think your benchmark is. And I personally think our benchmark should be industrialized countries generally, and most of them do not allow civilians to have military- style assault weapons or handguns. And of course, we banned handguns as well a number of years ago.

HUNTE: Ok. Well, we will leave it there for now. But we really appreciate it. This tragedy is obviously so awful. But it's quite nice to know that something positive is trying to be done about these gun rules. So thank you so much for that, Wendy Cukier. I appreciate it.

CUKIER: Thank you for including me.

HUNTE: CNN NEWSROOM will be back after a very quick break.

[01:38:01]

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HUNTE: A zoo in France is welcoming the first new addition to its elephant family in 13 years. The Beauval Zoo in central France welcomed a baby elephant on Sunday.

According to the zoo, the delivery was not straightforward and they were not sure if the mother and baby would survive. The baby girl was born after a seven-hour delivery, weighing 330 pounds or 150 kilos. The 37-year-old new mama is blind, but she's been successfully helping the new baby to feed.

We're going to take a quick break. For our viewers in North America, I'll have more news in a moment. For our international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next.

See you in a moment.

[01:41:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and Canada. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta.

The FBI is analyzing DNA from a glove recovered two miles away from the home of missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. The agency says the glove appears to match those worn by the person who was seen on doorbell camera footage approaching Guthrie's home in Arizona on February 1st.

Guthrie was reported missing just hours after this video was captured, and authorities believe she was abducted. At this time, there is still no suspect named in her disappearance.

Authorities are also searching for leads among the more than 30,000 tips called in since Nancy Guthrie's disappearance.

CNN's Brian Todd looks at past investigations where video and images proved critical to finding suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT; April 2013, In the harrowing days right after the Boston Marathon bombing, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was working the case, says investigators were at a dead end and debated internally whether or not to release images they had of the suspects. They decided they had no choice but to release them to the public.

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: You always want to work silently and quietly if you can, but the fact was we were at an end point. There was no -- there were no other leads to pursue. And I think that's very telling for what you're seeing in this case.

TODD: The release of those images led to a flood of tips from the public. Law enforcement was then able to track two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to a Boston suburb. Tamerlan died following a standoff with police. His younger brother was captured hours later.

September of last year, moments after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University, surveillance footage showed a man getting off a roof of a nearby building.

STEVE MOORE, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Then to have somebody getting down off that -- off that roof with a -- with something that could be a weapon, again, it's not just helping the case its breaking the case.

TODD: Those images were seen by a Utah man whose instincts told him the person in the black t-shirt and sunglasses was his son. He confronted his son and convinced him to turn himself in.

December 2024, following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan, it wasn't just the video of suspect Luigi Mangione lowering his mask to flirt with a woman in a nearby hostel that got him caught. It was a series of videos seemingly tracing his every move.

MOORE: The thing that got me, the thing that really told me that the world had changed is when they were able to trace him to and from the shooting scene. I mean, blocks -- blocks and blocks -- simply by following him on cameras along the route.

TODD: Five days after the shooting, the manager of a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania called to report a suspicious customer saying other customers there recognized the man's eyes and eyebrows from the surveillance images. Mangione was then captured.

Retired FBI agent Steve Moore says with the release of those images in the Guthrie case, the person seen in those images could now be rattled. That, in and of itself, he says, could help investigators because as more tips now come in, stemming from those images, the person could alter their behavior and make a mistake.

Brian Todd, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HUNTE: "When they go low, we strike back", those words coming from the top House Democrat as he vows to fight Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries promises to spend tens of millions of dollars to back redistricting efforts to give Democrats more seats across the country.

In an interview with CNN's Manu Raju Jeffries said he's all in on the effort and willing to spend whatever it takes to ensure his party ends up on top in this year's midterm elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Republicans started this redistricting war, and Democrats have made it clear we're going to finish it. We're forcefully making sure that the overall national map is free and fair.

And so whatever advantage Republicans thought they were going to obtain by gerrymandering in red states across the country, we are making sure those advantages are completely and totally wiped out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:49:55]

HUNTE: The U.S. Justice Department is struggling to explain why some of the Epstein files it's released have included so many redactions. In a letter sent to Congress on Saturday, the department lists why some names, even whole pages, have been shielded from public view.

The letter also lists names of quote, "politically-exposed" persons within the files. As in previous letters, the DOJ cites reasons for redacting that go beyond what the law requires.

Attorney General Pam Bondi says all the files have been released, but a prominent Republican says that's not good enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I know the DOJ wants to say they're done with this document production. The problem is they've taken down documents before We were able to go over to the DOJ and look at the unredacted versions.

They took down some of the most significant documents, two of them involving Virginia Giuffre's case and other things. The picture of Epstein at -- in a room where it's got CIA written on the boxes. That's been taken down.

We want to be able to look at all these files. They can't keep those documents down after they've already produced them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Video has now been released from an FBI sting operation in the Epstein investigation that was carried out seven years ago. The Justice Department says it shows Epstein's former house manager attempting to sell Epstein's address book.

The book is said to contain personal information on prominent people and victims of the convicted sex offender.

CNN's Kara Scannell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ, FORMER HOUSE MANAGER OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN: Names -- last names, Eric Walz. Ok.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who created this book?

RODRIGUEZ: Epstein himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This -- this book was made by Epstein?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a video of an FBI sting operation with Jeffrey Epstein's former house manager and an undercover FBI employee from 2009.

The Palm Beach house manager, Alfredo Rodriguez, believes he is selling Epstein's address book to someone representing a lawyer of Epstein's victims.

RODRIGUEZ: You will see a lot of important people here.

SCANNELL: He claims that the book contains contacts of powerful people, as well as Epstein's victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So those are mostly underage girls -- those numbers?

RODRIGUEZ: They were very young.

SCANNELL: A source familiar with the case confirmed the video shows the sting operation, which court documents show happened two years after the FBI demanded that Rodriguez turn over any Epstein documents. Instead, court documents say he kept the address book and tried to sell it for $50,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alfredo. How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?

SCANNELL: In the occasionally-redacted 45-minute video of the meeting Rodriguez implicates Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's close associate who is now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking of minors.

RODRIGUEZ: Ghislaine Maxwell was his former companion, a very powerful lady from England. She would go to the former eastern countries in Europe and find girls for Epstein. And I knew that because I went with my wife.

SCANELL: Rodriguez also claims that Maxwell kept a computer database of girls, something he said he saw briefly once.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of pictures?

RODRIGUEZ: Naked. Naked girls from Sweden, from Romania, from Czechoslovakia, from Brazil, from Colombia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All minors? All young girls?

RODRIGUEZ: Very young. Very young.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like when you say very young, how young are we talking?

RODRIGUEZ: Sixteen, seventeen. They're teenagers. They had braces.

SCANNELL: Rodriguez provided no evidence to support the existence of the database.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and count it.

SCANNELL: The video released as part of the recent trove of Epstein documents, abruptly ends after the agent hands Rodriguez a bag of cash and says he will call the lawyer. Rodriguez was arrested for failing to turn over the book as evidence.

He claimed the book was his property and that he should be compensated for it, saying it was his insurance policy and that he feared Epstein would make him disappear or harm him. He eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction charges.

At sentencing, prosecutors said that if Rodriguez had turned over the book in 2007, when authorities first requested it, it would have significantly advanced the ball toward bringing Epstein to trial rather than allowing him to secure a plea deal. Rodriguez was sentenced to 18 months in prison and died in 2014.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Kara Scannell, thanks so much.

After this video was published, the Justice Department said it failed to obscure the face of an undercover person. CNN has updated its video with the face obscured.

In the U.S., multiple storm systems are lining up to hit the Pacific Coast, bringing heavy rains and winter weather advisories as they move inland.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the forecast for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Winter weather alerts are already in place across portions of California, Nevada, as well as Oregon as they brace for not one, but two systems that are set to arrive in the coming days. Now, the first wave already started to spread across portions of

northern and central California Sunday evening.

[01:54:51]

CHINCHAR: Now, the bulk of that moisture is expected to spread eastward into the next 24 to 48 hours. You can see by Monday morning local time, areas of central and even southern California starting to see their rain chances increase, as well as snow.

By later on into the afternoon and certainly by the evening, more of that moisture spreads into portions of the intermountain west and into the Rockies.

But at the same time, the secondary system is right on the heels, meaning that some of these areas really aren't going to get much of a break in between the two systems.

There is the potential for flooding due to the excessive rainfall. That highest risk is going to be right here, stretching from San Francisco all the way down to San Diego and that does include the greater Los Angeles area.

By the time we push into Tuesday, most of the focus is really just going to be in southern California for that flood threat.

Now overall, we are talking pretty substantial amounts of rain and snow for many of these areas. Rain is going to be highest along the coastal regions of Oregon, as well as northern and central California, where we could be looking at 2 to 5 inches of rain.

Snowpack is going to be measured in feet across, not only Sierras, but also into the Rockies and the Rockies desperately needed. In fact much of this western region here is actually dealing with portions of severe and even extreme drought. California not so much, but they desperately need to see some more of that increased snowpack. And it looks like they're going to get it across portions of Colorado.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has led his USA Star squad to victory in NBA's all-star tournament. Lebron James connected on this three pointer in his 22nd all-star appearance, but his USA Stripes team fell to Edwards and the youthful USA Stars, 47 to 21 in the championship game.

Edwards was named the MVP and said he likes the new three-team round- robin tournament.

Well, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team.

I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta and I will see you next weekend.

CNN NEWSROOM continues, of course, after a quick break. Rosemary, over to you.

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